


Portrait of the Artist

by Ribbonsflying



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel
Genre: M/M, No beta we die like mne, Photography, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:53:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29819013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ribbonsflying/pseuds/Ribbonsflying
Summary: Bruce had knelt down to the little girl’s level and made a show of being surprised how much she had healed. Steve pulled out his camera and snapped a picture just in time.“Banner tonight?” Bucky asked, wrapping his arms around Steve’s middle and resting his head on Steve’s shoulder as he peered around at what his boyfriend was working on.“Bruce is so great with kids,” Steve commented as he lifted the print from the water and clipped it up on a wire.-In short:Steve takes pics of all the Avengers doing everyday, non-Avengers stuff and puts them in his hallway as a shrine to his friends.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 9
Kudos: 27
Collections: BBB Special Events, Stucky Bingo 2020





	Portrait of the Artist

**Author's Note:**

> For BBB Flash Bingo Square "Found Family." (Card 3, Square 2.)  
> For Stucky Bingo Square "Artist AU." (D5)

  
**Bruce**

When Bruce isn’t busy a gamma genius or green and angry, he’s a perfectly nice doctor in a little office downtown. He treats everyone at a low cost and whether or not they have insurance. He does the real life every day hero type of thing. 

One day recently, he, Clint, and Steve were walking down the sidewalk going to meet the others at a meeting when they encountered a little girl running up to him and tugging on his hand. 

“Dr. Banner! Dr. Banner!” she squealed and showed Bruce her arm.

Bruce had knelt down to the little girl’s level and made a show of being surprised how much she had healed. Steve pulled out his camera and snapped a picture just in time.

\\\

“Banner tonight?” Bucky asked, wrapping his arms around Steve’s middle and resting his head on Steve’s shoulder as he peered around at what his boyfriend was working on. 

“Bruce is so great with kids,” Steve commented as he lifted the print from the water and clipped it up on a wire. “It’s kind of too bad he doesn’t have any of his own.”

“No way. Anger issues and children are a terrible combination.”

Steve turned and made a pointed expression at Bucky and then motioned toward the painting as if to say, “Counter Argument: Exhibit A.” 

Bucky rolled his eyes fondly.

—⍟-⍟-⍟—

**Tony**

There was a bombing in a village near Gulmira. It hadn’t even made it on the televised news, but Steve had caught Tony reading the coverage of it on a feed on CNN’s website. There were tears in his eyes and Steve did his best not to interrupt him as he pulled out his camera and clicked a picture. He knew it was a private moment, but he also knew it was a side of Tony he didn’t want to soon forget.

He was fortunate enough that he didn’t lose the wetness of Tony’s eyes despite not using the flash. However, he was nice enough not to take a picture of Tony searching for the best ways to donate to the victims a few minutes later.

\\\

“The man behind the Iron Mask,” Bucky whispered in awe as Steve pinned the picture up in the dark room the next day.

“We have our differences, but I honestly think Tony wants the best for everyone,” Steve said with a shrug. “Like his dad.”

“I don’t think Howard Stark knew how to cry,” Bucky said with a shake of his head. “Not even close.”

“That’s because you were always pissin’ him off,” Steve laughed.

—⍟-⍟-⍟—

**Clint**

Clint’s arm was bandaged and he had two fingers taped and splinted which Bucky called “a big deal for an archer, man.”

Clint was standing on the roof, or well, propped on a crutch, across from his brother Barney who sat in a wheelchair. They were throwing playful insults back and forth that neither of them really meant. From what Steve could tell it was a favourite pastime of theirs.

Barney shook his head at his little brother and rolled himself over to the grill to rotate some of the food. Clint’s dog came to stand beside him just in case anything fell from the grill top.

Clint offered the dog a potato chip instead from one of the bags on the table nearby.

“Do you have a picture of Clint yet?” Bucky asked and Steve was already pulling out his camera.

“I was thinking the same thing.”

\\\

“The picture of Robin Hood turned out nicely,” Bucky mentioned over breakfast a few days later. Steve had completed it and placed it on the table where he always did before framing it along their long hallway. Bucky called it the “Avengers Hall of Lame” mostly because it was them being anything but heroic. However, Steve forbid him from calling it that after he had wheelchair-bound Barney Barton in a picture. 

“That would be cruel,”. Steve said, voice warning and Bucky knew he meant it.

“Clint’s brother’s kind of an ass though,” Bucky argued.

“Doesn’t matter.”

Bucky sighed and let it go.

—⍟-⍟-⍟—

**Natasha**

Most people didn’t know Natasha had a soft side at all, but she found it occasionally and only the very select few got to see it for themselves.

Steve just so happened to be fortunate enough to see that one day. It had been after a mission and Steve and Bucky’s place was in the section of town being blockaded by police until the bombs were defused. They crashed over at Nat’s place for the night even after the police had things handled. They were already in a pile of blankets on the floor and they’d already eaten and watched Netflix and argued about that time Natasha and Bucky had to pretend to be an Albanian couple for a mission in Latvia.

Then Steve and Bucky had fallen asleep on the pallet of blankets in Natasha’s floor and Natasha had fallen asleep on the couch. At some point in the night, her cat had apparently joined her. All sleek black and purring up a storm, skinny Liho curled up on her chest and fell asleep with red hair between his paws.

The clicking of the camera woke the cat and Natasha simultaneously, but Steve already had the picture.

\\\

“I want to put that in our room for me and Alpine to enjoy,” Bucky told Steve as he looked at the picture Steve was about to hang.

“You’ll do no such thing, Bucky Barnes” Steve said and turned to give a warning look to Alpine instead of his boyfriend. The white cat ignored him altogether and Bucky scooped her up and they both scowled at Steve. 

"You think you’d be grateful someone wanted to appreciate your art instead of letting you just hide it away in here.”

“It’s not hiding. And Nat’s not staying in our bedroom. There are enough people in the bed with you, me, and your cat. We don’t need Nat and hers joining us.”

Bucky sounded suggestive when he said, “Maybe not Liho, but Natasha can join us anytime.”

—⍟-⍟-⍟—

**Sam**

The picture Steve took of Sam was important to him even though he hesitated to put it on the wall until Sam gave him permission. 

He had taken it one day in Arlington Cemetary. Sam was facing the camera and there was a grave in the forefront of the picture. Sam was standing there, saluting it with a stony look on his face.

He visited Riley’s grave on a few important occasions. This time he had asked if Steve would like to go with him. Steve would never turn down something like that, but he had snapped the picture because he thought it was an important moment to capture.

In retrospect, he wasn’t sure it was something he should have done. Maybe it was too invasive into Sam’s personal life, but then Sam said, “You can put that on your wall if you give me a copy too.”

\\\

“Wow,” Bucky murmured as he looked at the picture drying in Steve’s dark room.

“It wasn’t an easy day,” Steve replied.

“That’s his Bucky?”

Steve smiled sadly at Bucky.

“Yeah. That’s his. We used to relate a lot because we’d both lost someone in war. When you first came home, and sometimes like today, I spent a lot of time wishing he could somehow just get Riley back.”

—⍟-⍟-⍟—

**Wanda & Pietro**

Wanda and Pietro were younger than people gave them credit for being. The public mostly seemed to see their powers and forget their were a young kids behind all that ability.

They started taking night classes to help them fit in better in America. It wasn’t that they needed the GEDs so much as they needed the general feel for American mentality and the English coursework never hurt either.

They had helped each other with studying and homework and eventually they graduated. All of the Avengers had shown up to the ceremony to watch them walk across the stage. 

And Steve had snapped a picture as they hugged each other tightly on stage, wearing caps and gowns and holding diplomas in hand. 

He had snapped another later that evening as they had cake to celebrate. Pietro cut Wanda’s piece first and then his own. He sat down next to her and handed her a glass of sparkling grape juice and her plate. She thanked him and set the drink beside her before resting her head on her brother’s shoulder. That was the picture Steve snapped, just the two of them in their element and happy.

\\\

“Wanda seems like she understands me the most,” Bucky said as Steve lightly hammered the nails into the wall and Bucky held onto the pictures. “Well, besides you and Nat.”

“Wanda? Really? Because Pietro has your temper.”

“We just both get annoyed easily,” Bucky defended. “But me and Wanda have both been through similar stuff, I think. Not in control of ourselves and then the guilt that comes with that.”

“And both of you are too hard on yourselves,” Steve said, turning back to look at him with soft eyes.

“And I have you to keep me going. Just like she has Pietro.”

—⍟-⍟-⍟—

**Thor**

Thor wasn’t a huge fan of the busy streets of New York. Too many angry people and cars honking their horns to seemingly no avail made him wonder why Midgardians couldn’t just get over themselves and exercise a little patience. It also made him fond of walking through Central Park or any other park he could walk through to avoid the busy streets. Parks were more peaceful and allowed him to enjoy the gentle nature of earth.

And that’s how Steve and Bucky came across him one afternoon. Or, well, he wasn’t walking. He was stopped and scratching softly with one hand under the large chin of a grey horse. His other hand was brushing up against the animal’s warm nose and he was talking fondly to the creature. The horse owner was waiting patiently as if he was used to taking time out of carting people around the park to allow Thor to chat up the horse. They watched as Thor said goodbye to one horse and walked across the street right as another horse approached and let its passengers climb off from the open carriage he was pulling. 

Thor greeted the animal fondly and reached into his satchel to pull out an apple.

“Is that even allowed?” Bucky asked.

“They think he’s a god,” Steve shrugged. “They’ll let him do anything.” He reached and pulled out his camera as Thor began to rub the horse’s long nose and talk to him.

“I thought that was because he was the hottest Avenger,” Bucky replied and took a quick step back to avoid being elbowed by his boyfriend.

\\\

“I should hide this one and Nat,” Steve joked as he watched the picture develop.

“Oh, come on!” Bucky whined from beside him. Bucky never helped take or develop any of the photos. He just stood over Steve’s shoulder during all of it and threw his opinions in like Steve required them. “I like to look at beautiful things.”

Steve made an over exaggerated pouty face and Bucky grinned.

“In the immortal words of my amazing mother, ‘You better poke that lip back in before I walk to town on it,’” Bucky told him while making a little walking motion with this fingers.

Steve broke out into laughter. “Wow! That is classic! Sometimes I forget just how old you are, Bucky Barnes. God, you’re ancient.”

“We are fifteen months apart, Steve.” Bucky reminded. “Besides, I’m gonna be like Thor. Look at him. Guy’s much older than either of us and he ages like fine wine. So handsome.”

He cut his eyes quickly in time to see Steve throw his hands up in the air and yell, “Oh my God!” while laughing.

—⍟-⍟-⍟—

**Rhodey**

He may not have control of his legs, but Rhodey was more than in control of his arms. He had one holding onto an intertube and one splashing waves of water onto Tony. Tony splashed back just as quickly and when Steve walked into the pool room, they both looked like children caught in a water fight. The swimming was a part of Rhodey’s rehabilitation, but usually it always devolved into him and Tony laughing and splashing and throwing splash bombs at one another like they didn’t have a care in the world.

Steve thought it was one of the rare moments they let their guards down long enough to be really happy. And today, all of the others had been invited to join as long as they let Tony pick the music and someone else handled dinner. Steve had shown up first and brought drinks and snacks. He’d also brought his camera which is how he was able to capture a picture of Rhodey with water spraying all around him and a full smile on his face.

\\\

“This is what I missed from the Pool Jam? Trash Can was being cool for once?” Bucky asked as he went through the pictures Steve had set aside to sort through. He didn’t know where other shots from the party was going, but he knew where that one would be: Hall of Fane. It was the Hall of Fane now. Bucky had eventually settled on that one. A shrine to the Real Life Avengers.

“You’ve gotta stop calling him that just because Sam does.”

“I haven’t forgiven him for having me arrested that time in Bucharest. Name calling is the last resort of a rehabilitated assassin.“

—⍟-⍟-⍟—

**Scott**

The thing about being the world’s smallest and most covert Avenger is that you also don’t make the media coverage that much. Which, for Scott, is generally a good thing. Most people who remember his face in the news remember him stealing from Roxxon and his subsequent San Quentin sentence and that doesn’t always garner positive reactions so he doesn’t mind the lack of headlines.

It allows him to take Cassie to Coney Island to the arcade and the beach when they visit the other Avengers in New York. Tony offered to have Scott and Cassie their own arcade built wherever they wanted, but Scott insisted the Coney Island one was their "thing” now.

It’s Steve and Bucky’s “thing” too so it wasn’t surprising when Bucky headed over to the basketball machine and ran into the two of them playing a game together. Cassie was perched on her father’s shoulders to make her tall enough to throw the ball.

Steve walked up behind Bucky and was immediately delighted. “I don’t have one of him,” he announced, pulling out his camera. 

\\\

“Oh, this is perfect. You should give him a print of this,” Bucky said as he looked over the finished picture of Scott and his daughter. He was looking up at Cassie and Cassie was looking dow at him. The imagine was among the cuter of the ones Steve had captured.

“I know. Who knew Lang could be so heartwarming?”

“And too, Scott can take care of a kid. He can barely take care of himself. How’s he do that?”

Steve shook his head. “Must be something people adapt to,” Steve replied. “Like Clint taking care of Lucky or you taking care of Alpine. Me taking care of you.” He smirked as Bucky’s mouth fell open in mock offense.

—⍟-⍟-⍟—

Bucky had his hair down and his pajamas on. He was lying back on his side of the bed with his tablet in hand which would seem perfectly normal except that Bucky was backwards on the bed- head hanging off the foot and tablet held out above his face. He always wore pajama pants, but he pushed them up to his knees. His barefoot were tucked under his pillow at the head of the bed and Alpine had settled herself near the edge of the mattress, rubbing against his metal arm every so often as if to remind Bucky she were still there. He was mostly preoccupied with whatever the game app of the week was.

“Whenever I think I’ve got the hang of this game, some new level pops up and kicks my ass,” Bucky groaned.

In the adjoining bathroom, Steve spit out his mouthwash in the sink and looked toward Bucky on the bed. “You can shoot a terrorist from two miles away with deadly precision, but you’re getting beaten by a game probably invented by some teenager in his dorm room,” Steve said with a shake of his head as he turned out the light to the bathroom and walked into the bedroom. “What a shame, Bucky Barnes.”

Bucky clicked off the screen and pulled his body up onto the bed quickly causing Alpine to jump down. Bucky reached and grabbed his Bucky Bear and curled up into a ball in the middle of the bed. “Be careful with me, I’m sensitive,” Bucky pouted. His hair fell into his face. He had one arm beneath his head and one arm wrapped around the stuffed animal. His pajama tank top was slipping off one shoulder and he looked so incredibly tired. Steve pulled his camera off the nightstand and snapped a picture.

\\\

Bucky’s pictures never went in the hall. Steve had a million of them and he referred to them as his Real Life Treasure Trove, but no one else got to see them.

“Put me in the Hall of Fane,” Bucky requested as he watched Steve develop dozens of pictures of him. They were mostly always pictures of him. And Bucky would go through saying, “I don’t like that,” or, “What is my face? Ew.” Or occasionally, “We look good in this one.”

“You want to go on the wall?” Steve asked. “Why?”

Bucky shrugged, looking somewhat vulnerable in a way only Steve ever got to see. “I like the way you see me.” Bucky admitted. “There’s not a picture of you in the Hall, but if you look at them, every picture is a picture of you because it’s your vision of the world. It’s how you see everyone. And I like how you see people. I like how you see me.”

Steve dropped what he was doing and brought his arms out to wrap around his boyfriend. “I will make every picture in that hallway a picture of you, Bucky Barnes.”

Bucky smirked. “No way, there’s already such attractive pictures of Thor and Natasha.”

Steve closed his eyes and shook his head. “You sure do know how to ruin a moment.”

“It’s a gift.”

—⍟-⍟-⍟—  
  
**Bucky ( & Steve)**

The next day, Steve followed Bucky off the train and across the street to Luna Park. They had been planning to do this for a quite a while and it seemed cooperating schedules had never been on their side until today. At least Coney Island’s theme park wasn’t going anywhere. It was like it had been there waiting for them since the last time they walked away from the place in 1939.

“I remember all of this so clearly,” Bucky said in awe.

There were people everywhere while they waited in line at the ticket booth and then they climbed the stairs to the platform of the Cyclone. The roller coaster rolled up in all of its red, white, and blue painted glory and Bucky slid into one of the first seats, making room for Steve. He ran his hands along the bar in front of of him and burst out into the biggest grin.

“It’s like nothing’s changed!” he practically giggled. “This is amazing!”

His face shown with sheer delight as he turned to look at Steve. As usual, Steve was prepared for the moment and instantly snapped a picture.

“You want me to take one of both of you?” one of the workers asked and Steve hesitated a second before handing the gentleman his camera.

He slid into the seat beside Bucky. They were almost too big to do that now even though they had fit so easily when they were younger.

They smiled up at him and he clicked a picture of the two of them. Then Steve packed the camera back up and left it with the man working security.

When Steve looked back, Bucky slung his metal arm over Steve’s shoulder and held out his cell phone.

“I can take pictures too. I am an artiste,” Bucky announced. Both of them grinned toward Bucky’s phone as he clicked the screen a few times. “I’m gonna start taking pictures too. Maybe not fancy ones like you, but awesome ones. It’s gonna be all the ways I see Steve Rogers. Gonna show them to everyone. They’ll forget all that heroic Captain America stuff.”

Steve smiled fondly and reached to hold onto the bar in front of them. “Hopefully the first one won’t be me throwing up after this ride.”

“Oh, man,” Bucky laughed as the workers came by and checked each seat. “That will be a great way to start out my collection!”

Steve shook his head and elbowed Bucky playfully as the ride started off.


End file.
